Dr. Michael Kaufman

Michael Kaufman, PhD, is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction books. As an advisor, activist, and keynote speaker, he has developed innovative approaches to engage men and boys in promoting gender equality and positively transforming men's lives. Over the past four decades his work with the United Nations, governments, non-governmental organizations, corporations, trade unions, and universities has taken him to fifty countries.

Kaufman's most recent non-fiction book was "The Time Has Come. Why Men Must Join the Gender Equality Revolution." He is the author or editor of eight other books on gender issues, on democracy and development studies. He is the author of four novels, the award-winning "The Possibility of Dreaming on a Night Without Stars," "The Afghan Vampires Book Club," and the Jen Lu mystery series, "The Last Exit" and "The Last Resort."

Kaufman is the co-founder of the White Ribbon Campaign, the largest effort in the world of men working to end violence against women. He volunteers as a senior fellow at Promundo (Washington D.C.) and co-wrote its first State of the Worlds' Fathers Report. He advised the French government in 2019 and the Canadian government in 2018 as a member of their respective G7 Gender Equality Advisory Councils. In 2017 he was awarded Canada's Meritorious Service Cross.

His work in the UN system, including with UN WOMEN, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, IFAD, ITC, and UNESCO has taken him to New York, Rome, Paris, Beijing, Katmandu, Ankara, Geneva, Nairobi, Jakarta, and Delhi. He has worked with numerous NGOs including OXFAM, International Red Cross, Save the Children, and Amnesty International, as well as with governments on six continents. He wrote the training program on sexual harassment used by tens of thousands of staff at the United Nations.

Kaufman previously taught at York University in Toronto where he was Deputy Director of the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and lived in Durham, North Carolina. He lives in Toronto, Canada, is married, and has a grown daughter and son.